Key Limes would be one of the quickest to bear fruits from seeds. There are others trifoliate types which can also bear much fruits even earlier than key limes but they are used as rootstocks or ornamentals but not for palatable fruit use. Fortunella hybrids that include hybrids of kumquats such as Calamondins, limequats, lemonquats, mandarinquats, sunquats would often come true to type from seeds and they also bear fruit early. Perhaps the longest to bear fruit from seeds are the pummelos and their hybrids like the grapefruits. The oranges come intermediate when it comes to bearing fruits from seeds. Grafted or not, but very often, the first few fruits from your citrus tree would be lousy tasting and of poor quality. It usually improves with tree age, with the quality starting to peak and stabilize after about three to four seasons from first fruiting. So don't chop off your tree when the first fruits do not compare with the ones you buy from the stores. The vigorous sour orange most probably came from rootstocks used way back in 1872. Here's short history: Before 1880's, most of California Citrus groves were composed of seedling trees. Most popular are lemons and oranges planted in the missions and haciendas of Southern California. Around 1872, the almost seedless Washington navels became so popular that there were not enough seeds to plant more navel trees, and so rootstocks became a necessity. First rootstock used was sweet orange (C. sinensis) and used until the 1940's. The next more popular rootstock starting around 1890's was the sour orange (C. aurantium) which tolerated phyhtopthora gummoosis and produced high-quality fruit. Then the rough lemon (C. jambhiri) was introduced around 1900's as rootstock for lemons and grapefruits where it achieved high yields even in sandy desert areas, but alas, due to poor fruit quality and susceptibility to cold limited its use. Then Cleopatra mandarin (C. reticulata) was used when trying to find tristeza-tolerant rootstocks. Its value was discovered in saline soils. It produced excellent quality grapefruits, but alas, it is susceptible to foot rot and also lost its popularity. All the above rootstocks were popularly used in commercial citrus industry of California until the 1940's. Around the 1940's a big event happened in California. Tristeza virus was discovered to be causing devastation of most citrus groves on sour orange rootstocks. This has lead to various works on rootstock development and changed the rootstock usage in California todate. Thus it ended the use of sour oranges and the hybrids of Sweet x Trifoliate oranges (Troyer and Carrizo) were introduced. Lately, there is a resurgence Citrus Tristeza Virus in Southern California which could mean that citruses on sour orange rootstocks and the sour oranges themselves would face another bout of devastation. As to the ultimate multi-grafted citrus, I currently have a 61-n-1 citrus tree. Tomorrow, I'm grafting 4 more cultivars unto it. Here's the tree when it was still 50-n-1: Fruits from 50-n-1 citrus tree And here's the best technique to add a cultivar when your tree is already mature. Budding is good for younger trees, but bark grafting have better success rates when multi-grafting to a mature tree. Citrus Bark Grafting Demo Here is a link that might be useful: Citrus Rootstock History

Before I face censure from the forum I shall out myself on a few points and offer an explanation. 1.) Yes these are self-watering pots. No I am not planning on using them as such. They were the smallest and cheapest I could find at the stores I checked. 2.) This is common potting soil, Miracle grow, that I had leftover after filling the flower baskets from this past spring. I have tried a variant of the gritty mix in the past for houseplants but found that when i have to work more I don't have the time to tend the plants and respond to their needs as often. This led to the plants suffering and seeming to be chronically dry and wilting. Over watering has not been a problem for me in the past (aside from a poor and very fussy departed ming aralia) and the fact that the soil holds water works for my home/work lifestyle. If the soil has gotten exceptionally dry then I place my plants in the sink and let a slow drip slowly saturate the soil. 3.) The pot diameter may be a bit too large for the seedlings right now. Again, these were the cheapest and smallest I could find at this time. It was important to me that all of the pots were the same. I'm sure that this will mean careful monitoring of the soil moisture until the roots and plants have grown some.

Yes you should. Your lemon will be a nice pretty foliage tree but if you want fruit you will probably never get it. Harris in flordia and Briteleaf in flordia have dwarf and full size so be sure it's a dwarf your buying. four winds only has dwarf but their rootstock is slightly less desirable. They do have very fancy tags that I really like. Most of mine are from four winds. If you do get another lemon consider the Mediterranean ones also. I wish I would have got a Santa Teresa instead of a Lisbon. But it was one of 4 in my first order.

Theparsley ha ha yeah we've already had a few salad meals and there's nothing like the taste of fresh grown greens. darth_veeder, I am keeping out the crazy insane rabbits, I first learned that I had rabbits when we first moved in, they showed me by chomping down and killing three of my young blueberry bushes. Then when I planted my bare root apple trees they went after the trunk. I put up tree guards quickly. Then when I set up the garden, I knew the trouble would come so I wanted to put up that chicken wire with no possibility of them jumping over it, might be over done with height but it's fine. Right now I have peach trees from seed growing they nipped them too, so I have clear plastic forks guarding those for now but will be fencing them soon. If you can't tell I hate these rabbits! I won't kill them unless they cross the line, the line is my garden, they cross it they will be dinner. Theses rabbits are not that fearful of people or dogs.